Adobe to Cut Over 650 Employees

Adobe plans to reduce its workforce by nine percent, or 680 full time employees, over the next year. The company made the announcement as part of its annual 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the filing the company said "On November 10, 2009, we announced a workforce reduction to appropriately align our costs in connection with our 2010 operating plan (the 'Restructuring Plan'). As a result, we expect to eliminate approximately 680 full-time positions worldwide."

Adobe is well known for software products such as Photoshop, Acrobat and InDesign, and the Flash and PDF file formats.

Adobe previously launched a staff reduction in December 2008 when it started cutting 600 positions.

Like many other software companies, Adobe is dealing with lower than expected sales. While popular, the company's Creative Suite 4 package hasn't been moving as quickly as it would like.

The company didn't say if it will be cutting developer positions. If so, Adobe could potentially have issues maintaining enough manpower to stay on track for its 18 month Creative Suite update cycle.

Assuming Adobe stays on schedule, Creative Suite 5 should roll out around April 2010 with new versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and several other production and design-related applications.

I think a lot of customers of Adobe jump versions like that: The software is still very expensive, and to be honest, the changes between major releases are often pretty minor. I think a lot of customers wait for a major useful feature to be added before upgrading from an old version (I know I only upgraded when the OS X version and Intel versions came out respectively)